Maitland's history of floods is well documented. The Mercury, as the paper of record for the region since 1843, must have carried hundreds of thousands of words on the subject over the years.
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We've had flood liftouts, wrap-arounds, features, sponsored content ... you name it.
But we were intrigued last week when we were contacted by an associate professor at Newcastle University, Susan Kerrigan, who has produced a free podcast she thought people might want to hear.
Susan, who grew up in Lochinvar and went to school in Maitland, said the podcast on the history of Maitland's floods was funded from the university's Centre for 21st Century Humanities as a start-up project.
A Mercury subscriber, she had read the popular history column - Our Past, written by the Maitland and District Historical Society - and thought the podcast might also be of interest to readers.
It goes for just under 15 minutes, and is a simple, engaging journey through Maitland's history of flooding, and is easily digestible for the average person.
If you can find the time, it's time well spent.
On another subject, it's hard to grasp the sheer reach of social media and the online world.
Our weekly sports columnist, Brian Burke did a column last week asking why so many major sports are struggling financially - AFL, rugby league, rugby union, A-League football ... all under serious financial pressure.
He asked, tongue in cheek, if there was a sport anywhere that wasn't going broke.
Who would have thought by the following morning he had been contacted by the boss of Table Tennis Australia - in Adelaide, mind you - who had read column and wanted to let us to know his sport was going gangbusters thank you very much after very nearly folding.
The reach of stories? It never ceases to amaze.
Rick Allen, Editor
